Camping Trip

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I’ve been disconnected from social media for the past 2 weeks. The kids and I have been camping. Yes, I took the 3 kids camping!!! It was so much fun! Even though there were some hard moments when the kids were tired or wanting to do their own thing. Overall, it was amazing. To be honest, it was our first ever family vacation. Wow…. we just went on our first family vacation.

We were in an RV at Beachwood Resorts in Washington State. Beachwood has several pools, a playground, field, tennis courts, bike trails and several places to walk/bike ride. Well the first week the weather wasn’t great. It rained for a few days, so we went to Bellis Fair and played in the play area there. Parenting win #1. But being the smart person, I am, I also had downloaded several movies onto my laptop and the iPad. So, if the kids weren’t playing with Lego or other toys, they were watching a movie. Naomi watched ‘The Greatest Showman’ on repeat as much as she could. If you don’t know Naomi well…she is obsessed with that movie. She breaks out into random song from the movie all the time. She isn’t the only one though: Nate does it too.

Anyway, when it wasn’t raining, we went to the park, on lots of bike rides/walks, and of course went swimming as much as we could. Yup, I took all 3 kids swimming several times by myself. It was lots of fun. One of the days, we were the only people in the pool. I got the puddle jumpers on all three of the kids and they were walking into the pool by way of the stairs. I looked at them, ran and did a cannon ball right into the pool. The look on their little faces were priceless. I really wish I had a camera to capture it. Paul was so excited. He said, “Mom, you did a cannon ball. You got your hair wet and it’s in a ponytail!! I’m so proud of you!!!!” Nate looked at me and said, “That was an okay cannonball Mama!! My cannonball splashes are bigger! See!!” and Naomi jumped up and down, right off the stair and into the water. They still talk about the time I cannonballed into the pool!!

Another family highlight was going to the annual carnival at Birch Bay Community Church for the 4th of July with Nana and Papa. The kids did the donut race, fished for sharks, played plinko, ring toss, and so many other carnival games. They even had a mini golf course set up in the Sanctuary. We didn’t part take in this because we were having some overstimulation issues, so we headed outside to the field. Outside there was live music and a concession with hotdogs, hamburgers, pop, chips, freezies, etc. We set up out lawn chairs and watched the kids dance to the music. When it got closer to the time, we all sat together and got ready for the fireworks display. It was the first time the kids had ever experienced fireworks and the 4th of July celebration. It was amazing to see their faces and reactions as the fireworks display started. Talk about a great display. If you are ever in the area for the 4th of July, this church does it annually every July 3rd. It’s free and it’s amazing! We are talking about 15-20 minutes of HUGE fireworks going off. AMAZING!!!!! Naomi kept yelling “more, more boom sky, more!” Nate and Paul were repeating “BEST DAY EVER!” and afterwards, Nate said we had to buy fireworks! I think I may have started a new family tradition.

So yeah, there was so much that happened over the last 2 weeks, I can’t even write it all down. We had amazing family time, with great and hard conversations. Memories were made that will last a lifetime! I can’t wait to take the kids camping again!